About us

Monday, 30 June 2014

Reading
the Gazette on the current problems of finding interpreters for
defendants reminds me of the 1970s, when competent interpreters were even more
thin on the ground.

Thames
magistrates’ court, with foreign seamen coming up, had particular problems. I
think it was the magistrate Donaldson Loudon, not generally regarded as having
a great sense of humour, who decided he would himself interpret for a German
charged with drunkenness. The first bit went well. ‘Tronk?’ he asked. ‘Ja,’
said the man.

‘Drei
pund,’ said Loudon. ‘He’s only got 10 shillings,’ said the clerk. ‘Funf
shilling’ said Loudon, ‘that’s the trouble in trying to speak a language you
don’t really understand.’

He
did rather better than one of the regular court spectators who, when no
interpreter could be found and presumably sniffing a few pounds, volunteered to
act in another German case. Unfortunately his ability was taken as read. This
lack of testing was cruelly exposed from the opening words. ‘Ask him if he was
drunk’, said the clerk. ‘Voss you drunk?’ barked the soi-disant interpreter in
what he deemed to be a thick German accent.

Things
went downhill so fast that the interpreter ended up with an afternoon in the
cells for contempt.

It
was at Bow Street that I played a small but heroic part in the struggle for
justice. I forget who the magistrate was: it cannot have been David Hopkin who
spoke fluent Italian and once, to keep himself amused, tried to get me to
conduct my mitigation in the language. ‘I could do it in French,’ I
volunteered. ‘No, Italian, Mr Morton, Italian.’ I said something like ‘Mille
scusi’, which he regarded as sufficient.

This
time, however, the Italian interpreter made no impression and turned in despair
to the clerk saying, ‘I can’t make him understand a word. He comes from a very
remote region and speaks only a dialect.’

The
solicitors’ pit was between the bench and the dock and, as I had just returned
from a few days on the Costa del Crime, I twigged what was going on. I passed a
note saying, ‘It’s because she’s talking to him in Spanish’. I never received
the credit I thought I deserved for averting yet another miscarriage of
justice.

Fears
translation service costs for Cambridgeshire police would soar with an influx
of migrants seem to have been proved unfounded after it was revealed the bill
has almost halved.

Fresh
data has now been released by the force showing the cost of translation
services in 2012/13 fell to £345,000 from £420,000 in 2011/12 £420,000 and
£623,000 the previous year.

The
bill is now at its lowest level since the expansion of the EU in 2004 allowed
workers to move freely through member states. And fears taxpayers’ would have
to pick up the bill when Britain lifted work restrictions to Bulgaria and
Romania also proved unfounded in Cambridgeshire.

Data
also revealed the force spent just £9.10 on Bulgarian and £1,357.84 on Romanian
translators in January last year, when the restrictions were in place – and
they have spent nothing at all on translators for the two languages after
restrictions were lifted.

Former
Chief Constable Julie Spence famously took her fight to central Government in a
bid for an extra £17 million to deal with population changes back in 2007.

Mrs
Spence said officers were dealing with 100 languages with a translation bill
for the force of at least £800,000 in 2006/7, amid fears it would increase. In
2009/10 that bill stood at £809,000.

The
most commonly translated languages in the county are Polish, Czech, Bulgarian,
Romanian, Russian, Slovak and Lithuanian and the force has some multi-lingual
officers on the beat.

Wednesday, 18 June 2014

Four
Latvian men have appeared at Swansea Crown Court in relation to an alleged
kidnapping and assault in Carmarthen.

[…]

The
defendants were unable to enter any pleas due to the fact the court had been
unable to arrange for a Latvian interpreter to be present.

Judge
Peter Heywood ordered the defendants to return to Swansea Crown Court on
September 5 for their next hearing, when they will be asked to enter pleas. The
court was informed that a Latvian, Polish and a Bulgarian interpreter would
probably be required if a trial was to take place.

Nikiferovs,
Turcans and Goldins were all released on bail with the condition that they do
not contact any prosecution witnesses.